Obverse

Bust of St. Theodore, wearing a chlamys and holding a spear in his right hand and a shield in his left. Vertical inscription at left: ̣|Θε|ο – .|Ω̣|ρ,—Ὁ ἅ(γιος) Θεό[δ]ωρ(ος). Traces of circular inscription at left and right. Border of dots.

κεrοηθιτσλ

Κύριε βοήθι τῷ σῷ δούλῳ

Reverse

Inscription of five lines (four visible). Border of dots.

θεορ,σπθ,sστρτι,τrερηrοη

Θεοδώρῳπρωτοσπαθαρίῳκαὶ στρατιγῷ τῷ Βερηβόῃ

Translation

Commentary

A certain Beriboes was strategos of Chios and defeated a party of Arab pirates in 1028; but as his first name is not attested, we cannot say whether he is identical with the owner of our seal; see Skylitzes, Synopsis historiarum, 373. Another Beriboes, a seditious Vlach (no first name mentioned), lived in Larissa under the reign of Constantine X Doukas (1057–67), but he was certainly not a strategos; Litavrin, Sovety i rasskazy Kekavmena, 256 and 527, n. 937 (Slavic etymology of the name). Two other members of the same family, Manuel and Nikephoros, are attested in the letters of Michael Choniates: they belonged to the aristocracy of southern Greece at the beginning of the thirteenth century; Stadtmüller, Michael Choniaties, Metropolit von Athen, 193, 258, 262, 263, 266, 273.

This is one of eighteen specimens from the same boulloterion belonging to Theodore Beriboes in the Dumbarton Oaks and Fogg collections.